They're Gonna be Alright
by No Fredom
Summary: Ode to Zoro's birthday! Okay so right now it's literal 12:30 am for me now that I'm posting this and I ment for hit to be uploaded on 11/11 but I think this counts. Right? Well, anyway, I think you're really gonna like this! I know I do!


**11/11**

"Zoro? ZORO?" Chopper called for their swordsman. Where's that damn oaf? Sometimes Chopper agrees with Sanji about Zoro being an irritating bastard. The little doctor walks around the main mast and almost bumps into Nami carrying some packages. "Oh Nami Sorry I didn't see you there!" He smiles up at her. The red headed woman glances down as if she didn't even notice he was there. "Oh Chopper." Her mind seemed to be occupied on something else though as she spoke those words. "Hey Nami, Have you see-" Choppers question is cut short by Nami hurrying off and calling over her shoulder about seeing to something. Chopper frowns, but doesn't dwell too long on it. Everyone on this ship is always up to something.~

Chopper pads to the kitchen and sees Sanji working furiously on some pastry that he seems very absorbed in. The little doctor decides to leave him at that and not interrupt the busy man. Chopper's learned the hard way of interrupting the cook while he's working. Let's just say that flying cutlery and harsh words were involved. Of course Sanji had apologized profusely and gave him sweets for days, but still he doesn't want to recreate that experience.~

Chopper went down to the aquarium, jumping two stairs at a time on his way down. He pauses at the door, hearing Robin and Usopp's voice's floats through the door, although muffled he could tell it was serious. He creaked open the door and stood in the frame. Before him Robin and Usopp sat at a table that undoubtedly Franky had built for them. Usopp was explaining something about how some contraption of his would work and Robin adding in advice about little details. Chopper frowns at them not even glancing up to see who had open the door to their little meeting. "Have you guy's see-" He begins to asks with big brown hopeful eyes. But alas, they ignore him and ask him to close the door on his way out. Chopper takes that as a request to leave and he does so, making sure to close the door.~

He walked up to the top deck and wanders to the front of the ship, only to find his rubbery captain sitting at the head of the ship. "Oh! Luffy…" Chopper began to walk up to his captain when Luffy flipped his head over stretching out his neck making everything he sees upside down. "Chopper! Oh, do you think Sanji could make upside down sea king meat!" The boy laughed at his new discovery. "Um… I'm not sure that's exactly how it works Luffy…" Chopper thought about it for a few seconds. He doesn't think that Sanji would like it very much. Actually, He thinks Sanji would just look at the rubber man and walk away. The little reindeer laughs at the mental image. Luffy smiles and swings his head back rambling about chocolate cover meat. The doctor decides that Luffy may not be the best person to ask his pending question. "Alright, well, I'll see you." He frowns in confusion at his captains antics, but no one ever knows what's ever going through that boys mind.~

Chopper walks up to Franky who's tinkering on something that looks like a kind of generator, but doesn't look quite done. He doesn't even want to know what it's going to be used for in the future. Or maybe he does… His thoughts are cut short with Franky noticing his presents. "Yow! Lil' bro!" The cyborg smiles up at the doctor who's starring starry eyed at the… uh… the thing. "Wow Franky! This looks really Cool!" He squeals in excitement. The little boy's just about to ask what it's used for, but he realizes that there's something else that he needs to ask first. Maybe the mechanical man will listen to him? "Um, Franky, have you seen-" A loud bang and a clicking sound come right after that. Franky yells for him to cover, and Chopper dives behind a barrel just as the thing shoots out all the screws in it like bullets. "AHH!" The poor boy hides (backwards) behind the barrel. The blue haired man chuckles slightly and pulls a nut from his nose. "Sorry little bro what was that?" He turns to where Chopper's hiding. He opens his mouth to ask again but Franky speaks first "WHAT? CAN YOU SAY THAT AGAIN?" God damn, Franky's temporarily lost his hearing from the explosion, well Chopper's going to have to tend to that after Franky's done with whatever it is he's doing. Chopper gets an idea. He quickly pulls out some paper and scribbles a note on it then shoves it into Frankie's face. "NOPE SORRY LIL' BRO, I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE THAT CRAZY SKELETON IS OR WHAT HE'S DOING. WHAT DOES HE DO ALL DAY?" Franky's still shouting and the answer doesn't quite help him much. He nods in thanks and scurries out the potentially dangerous area.~

Chopper walks around the ship for the rest of the day wondering where that stupid swordsman could be on this goddamn ship. The sun is setting and he doesn't even know what the specific time it's supposed to be! All he knows is that it's today, which isn't that bad, he could have just known the week, or the month! Damn it where's Zoro? Chopper glances up at the crows nest and sees a silhouette of a particular person that he's been trying to locate. CHopper smacks his didn't he just look up there for the drunk moron?! He pads over to the mast when Sanji sticks his head out the window. "Oi Chopper, would you get marimo-kun down here? He's up in the crows nest. Thanks" And sticks his head back in. Chopper resists the urge to scream and throw potentially breakable objects.~

The little doctor all but slams his way up to the crows nest and slams the hatch open, slightly startling the green head. "ZORO" Chopper uses a harsh voice, making the swordsman flinch. Of course he knows. OF COURSE THE DAMN MAN KNOWS HE'S BEEN RUNNING AROUND LOOKING FOR HIM LIKE A CHICKEN WITH IT'S HEAD CUT OFF! "Do you know how long I've been searching for you?" He runs up to the man who's sweating profusely. Zoro wipes the sweat from his face and put down the weights. "Sorry Chopper" He pats the little guys pink hat hoping the boy will let him get on with his work out. "Have you been training this whole time! God Zoro you've pushed yourself too far this time!" He pulls the man's muscular arm towards him and gently rubs at the twitching muscle. "Chopper it's fine. I do this every year. It's sort of a ritual." He smirks at some memory that's no doubt precious to the man. Or not, you never know. Chopper 'humphed' and pulled something out that he's been holding on to for a while. "Well here any way. It's from all of us." He holds up a small little thing that's wrapped in blue wrapping paper with a green bow tied around it. Zoro gives a small smile at the irony and sits down on the bench. He tugs at the string unraveling it and letting the blue paper following soon after onto his lap. In his hand he holds a string. A leather string that's fairly thick and seems very durable to almost anything. It's way too small to go around his neck, but just a little too big to fit around his wrists. "It's an anklet. You put it around your ankle. This one's supposed to have pendants put on it. Things that matter to you so you're always reminded of them." The little doctor fiddles with his han- er, hoofs waiting for Zoro's reaction. Zoro smiles and wraps his arms around the now blushing doctor. "Thank you Chopper." He's still smiling when he let's go of the small person. Chopper looks up at Zoro and watches him as he examines the anklet. He can see the joy in his eyes. Ever so slightly, but he can see the sparkle and feelings brewing behind that mask of coolness. The little doctor smiles brightly and his cheeks become bright red. "You bastard, don't say that. That doesn't make me happy!" He giggles and flails his arms. Zoro chuckles lightly and looks up at the young boy. Chopper pauses and pulls something else from his pocket and places it in Zoro's palm. "That's for the anklet." He smiles and walks over to the hatch. "When you're done with putting it on, come down here immediately." Chopper made sure to have Zoro promise that he'll come down without training any more or anything like that. No more drinking either, but chopper had taken the bottles with him when he left.~

Zoro slowly opened his hand to reveal an outline of a small X Made out of cool metal, it's about the size of the top of his thumb and is tinged slightly pink. He smiles. This is Chopper. This is supposed to resemble him as a doctor but also as an Nakama. Tears threaten to spill over now that the doctor is gone his consciousness isn't doing him any help with holding it back for himself. No one's ever done this for him since Kuina. No one knew when his birthday was when he was younger, and Kuina had to guess. She had gotten so close. She most likely would have gotten it the next time. But he guesses he'll never know. No Zoro, now's not the time to get all sad and remembrance of her. He berates himself and slides the leather through the hoop on the 'X' and clasps it in his hand. He doesn't want to put it on just yet. Now to make good on his promise. He gets up and opens the hatch.~

He jumps down and lands with a thump. He's met with the deck of the sunny illuminated by light bulbs strung on a wire zig-zagged over the grassy deck making it look like everything is glowing. There's a table pulled out onto the deck as well that has assortments of different foods based off of various other main foods such as meet, even sake. He looks around to see all his nakama standing there smiling at him each with something enclosed in their hands and Brook's playing some cheery melody on his violin. He's so struck with awe and shock that he doesn't even know what to say. Nami smiles and raises her arms (So does others) and they all shout: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZORO!" He smiles at his nakama. They are the best living things in the whole world. He's so filled with joy it's infecting the others.~

Luffy cackles and bounces over to the food. "Lets eat!" He yells. Nami smacks him on the head pretty hard. "IDIOT! We need to give him these first she nudges him. He pouts but lights up when Brook steps up to the still semi shocked swordsman. "Ah Zoro-san, I know I haven't known you for long, I haven't know any of you for long, but I hope we'll become just as close as you all are." He smiles and gives Zoro a small medal musical note that's tinged slightly darker. He realizes it's supposed to go along with Choppers 'X'. He smiles lightly at the skeleton man. "It's not like any of us have known each other for very long. Just six months." Brook laughs merrily at that and pats him on the shoulder and walks to the side. Franky's next as he smiles and flicks his sunglasses up to show his eyes. Really, why does he wear them during the night? "Yo Zoro-aniki! Here's my SUPER gift!" He strikes a pose (after giving him the pendant) It's a electric blue tinged outline of a five pointed star. He wouldn't want anything less from the mechanical man.~

Robin simply smiles, never being the one with many words to say, and opens her hand. "Happy birthday swordsman-san." An outline of a petal lightly tinged purple is placed in his palm. He nods in thanks, respecting the silent truce between them. He hugs Chopper once more in thanks, and the doctor calls him an idiot and why the hell would that make him happy you bastard? Next is the cook. He's smoking with a totally 'I don't give a fuck about this' attitude. That kind of irks him. Not because he's a spoiled brat that want's everyone to be happy on his birthday. No that's not it at all. It's just that whatever the cook does irks him a little. It's never made any sense to him. He smirks when the cooks facing him. Sanji snorts at him "Don't start thinking that I like you shit-head, I'm merely doing this because my dear Nami-swan and Robin-chwan had asked me to." Zoro just tilts his head, not showing how that little sentence had pissed him off. "Just get it on with dart-brow." Sanji scowls but doesn't comment when Nami sends a harsh glare his way. He shoves his hand into Zoro's chest and drops his pendant into Zoro's palm. Zoro looks at the image. It looks like a koi fish, of course its an outline, but still, it looks very beautiful he thinks. That's until he realizes he's sort of saying Sanji's beautiful and that idiot's not ever caught his eye. Ever.~

Usopp puffs up his chest and places his little symbol in Zoro's hand. "You should treasure that Zoro, That's given to you by the Great Captain Usopp-sama!" Zoro chuckles at the man's antics and looks at the symbol. "Thanks great man of the sea." It's a simple slingshot, actually it's the slingshot that Usopp used at first. It's tinged yellow too. Nami Smiles charmingly and places the little piece of metal in the mans big hands. "I'll ignore your debt for tonight." He rolls his eyes and mumbles something about sea witches. A simple out line of a tangerine tinged orange. This is so Nami. Well all of them is so much them. He can't believe that his nakama would do this for him. Never would he have ever imagined this. They don't have to do this, but they did. He can't quite explain it, but he feels something leave him. It's not a sad good bye, more like happy that it's finally moving on. What that something it, well that's up to Zoro to know. He feels uplifted. Supported by the same people he's been supporting. It's all a giant spiders web, no string would work without the others.~

Luffy slaps his metal piece on his first mate, and wraps his arm around the mans shoulders. Zoro sees the straw hat out line tinged red, as much as he can feel it pressing into his skin. He has each of his nakamas dreams with him. Not only in thought any more. Not only in words is it sealed that he will protect their dreams, and them trust him to. The sense of trust he feels from these little pieces of metal. "SUGOI!" Luffy shouts with a cup of juice. Everyone else grabs cups of sake milk juice cola and wine based off peoples likes. "Kanpie!" They all shout. Zoro's still staring at the ring of trust. "Kanpie!" He loves them all so much. Never has he thought he would love this many people at the same time all in the same space. He has a family. They may be crazy and not all human or whole human, but they're apart of him now forever. He grabs a cup of sake and raises it for the third "KANPIE!"~

* * *

**11/15**

Zoro's lying on the ground. Everything hurts. Everything. He's most definitely not had enough time to heal from Thriller Bark. But of course the world hates the straw hats and would never let them have it easy. Now he's sitting in this shitty paw print on the shitty ground floating in and out of consciousness. Of course it's not how anyone describes it. It's not like gently gliding in and out of the darkness. Its either dreams/nightmares, that's when he knows he's asleep. Then searing blinding pain, when he's awake. Fuck it hurts like a bitch. Or Sanji's kicks, but that's different and he shouldn't be thinking about his nakama right now. He should be making sure that he's not bleeding out. But all he can think about the string around his ankle with the small little metal pendants hanging from it and hoping, wishing, _praying_ that his nakama are alright. It's only three day's anyway. It cant be that hard to get back.


End file.
